Senator Conroy confirmed today that $21 billion still remains unspent from the stimulus package funding. One can only presume that with our current debt of $120 billion, the remaining $21 billion will also have to be borrowed.

For future budgets this mean that the extra $21 billion will have to be repaid with interest, placing immense pressures on the capacity to fund essential services in the future and adding to the upward pressure on interest rates. Surely a fiscally conservative Mr Rudd would understand that we cannot just continue to borrow money, especially when there is a capacity to make savings now rather than continue on this trajectory of Labor debt and the immense pressure that will be placed on the budget in the future.

Mr Conroy did not suggest any savings from the $21 billion as it is inconsequential to Labor as to how the money is repaid. For the Labor party the expenditure on school halls, ceiling insulation and $900 cheques is far more important than the consequences for all those who rely on controlling and reducing debt to maintain the financial security of our nation into the future. For the Labor party it is inconsequential to spend this additional $21 billion as they have no believable plan as to how to repay the debt.

One of the consequences of spending an extra $21 billion is that it adds to the interest bill which is ongoing and could have funded so many other services for the Australian people, such as health, education, defence and roads.

For the Labor party debt is merely a statement. For everyone else, the Labor party’s debt will be a very stark reality.

The Labor Party asks where we can find $3.2 billion for the Coalition’s Environment Plan.